


Touch-starved  ♢   Sharp    ♢    Fragile

by taylor_tut



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Hurt Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Hurt Tim Stoker, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Scars, Sick Character, Sick Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Sickfic, Whump, mention of the worm scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26153272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylor_tut/pseuds/taylor_tut
Summary: For day four of TMA H/C Week!!Short ficlet in which Jon's worm scars get infected and Tim and Not!Sasha have to deal with it when he collapses.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 137





	Touch-starved  ♢   Sharp    ♢    Fragile

“Oh, God, careful, don’t--Jesus, here; let me help,” Tim insists as he watches Sasha trying to maneuver an unconscious Jon out of his desk chair, where he’d seemingly passed out, and onto the floor without injuring him further. 

“Don’t you dare,” Sasha commands sharply, shooting Tim a glare. “You’re still just as hurt as he is. I can handle it. Just give me a minute.” She takes a moment to catch her breath, then, with one final, impressive heave, she manages to drape his body weight over her back and struggles him over to the middle of the floor, where there’s room and light to examine him.”He’s warm,” she announces, pressing one hand to Jon’s forehead and the other to her own, “I think. Hard to tell.” 

Fighting back a groan, Tim rearranges himself to sit on the floor so he can check for himself. The worm scars are still so fresh, and even though they’ve been released from the hospital with instructions to take it easy and the promises of many, many scars, the truth is, it hasn’t even been two weeks since the incident, and none of them are feeling right just yet. 

Tim had thought that Jon needed space. It was normal, he’d reassured himself, immediately after trauma, that he might need some time to himself. He was still processing, too. 

Tim had believed Jon when he’d said that the limp was more mental than physical. Maybe Jon believed it, too, as his posture began to shift from a slow, but even, shuffle into a left-side-favoring hobble that hardly even got him from room to room without having to sit down from the pain. 

He hadn’t pressed the issue when Jon had said he was tired and falling asleep at his desk because he wasn’t sleeping well. He’d asked no questions when he’d blamed stress for a headache so incapacitating that he actually had to leave a meeting to lie down, when he’d blamed his slender frame for the fact that they rarely saw him not bundled up in sweaters or blankets, when he’d blamed being distracted for his skipped meals. 

But there was no excuse for this. 

“Shit, Sash, he’s boiling. You really can’t tell?” 

She hesitates a bit. “I… maybe my hands are just warm. From the exertion. He’s light, but he’s not the easiest to maneuver.” 

Tim still finds that somewhat odd, but they don’t have time to press it. “The corkscrew holes must be infected,” he surmises, running a scabbed hand through his hair with a wince. “We can’t deal with this here. Call an ambulance--I don’t think it’s smart to move him more than we already have, not with all his wounds. I would call, but my phone is at my desk.” 

He’d only walked in here, after all, to ask Jon a question about a statement follow-up, and Sasha had come running when he’d shouted after finding him draped over his desk and drenched in sweat, unresponsive and muttering incoherently. 

“Okay. I’ll be back. Stay with him.”

Tim nods, taking Jon’s pock-marked hand in his own and giving it a light squeeze, unsure of whether he’s even conscious enough to register the touch but knowing just how long it’s been since either of them have had any physical contact. With the extensive injuries, there hasn’t been an inch of skin between the two of them to allow for touch. 

Tim sits and waits while everything happens around him and that feeling is starting to become so familiar that it makes his stomach ache.


End file.
